Well-known trainer Wayne Catalano has been hospitalized with an acute case of pneumonia.
Catalano remained in the intensive care unit at Saint Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates, Ill., as of Thursday morning, according to his wife, Renee Catalano, who was at the hospital with him. She said her husband was sedated and on oxygen.
“He’s really, really sick,” she said.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Churchill Downs on Tuesday released the stakes schedule for the second 12-day September meet in modern track history with minimal change from the 2013 inaugural.
The schedule is identical to last year, with only purses having been adjusted, amounting to a net decrease of $50,000 involving three races. One of those, the Homecoming Classic, had its purse dropped from $175,000 to $125,000.
Five horses in England, including a horse owned by Queen Elizabeth II, have tested positive for morphine, the banned drug that is frequently detected in post-race samples as a result of environmental contamination.
A federal judge in Pennsylvania has accepted a plea agreement from a clocker at Penn National Race Course who was indicted last year for recording false workout times for horses, according to court records.
Judge William W. Caldwell accepted the agreement Tuesday, according to the records. Under the agreement, the clocker, Danny Roberston, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud for accepting money from trainers to post false workout times. The times were later used in past-performance data, according to the indictment against Robertson.
A rash of positive tests in the Mid-Atlantic region for overages of the muscle relaxer methocarbamol is being traced to the use of the drug in conjunction with the painkiller phenylbutazone, a combination that slows the elimination of methocarbamol from a horse’s system, according to racing officials and chemists.
Dan Borislow, the brash entrepreneur best known in Thoroughbred circles for owning the standout runner Toccet, died of a heart attack Monday night, less than two months after taking down a massive pick-six jackpot at Gulfstream Park.
Borislow, 52, died after playing in a pick-up soccer game in West Palm Beach, Fla., from where he operated his business and where he was highly active in youth soccer.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Jockey Rosario Montanez sustained multiple injuries as a result of a spill in Saratoga’s fifth race on Saturday and will remain hospitalized at least through the weekend, according to his agent, Mike Monroe.
Montanez suffered a moderate-to-severe concussion, a right rib fracture, a slight fracture of his left pelvis, and he had lacerations over his left eye and on his face, according to Monroe. Monroe added that a CT-Scan came back clean.
Monroe said that Montanez will remain in Albany Medical Center “for a couple of days” for evaluation.
Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens said Friday he will need to undergo a full knee replacement next week after doctors informed him that the damage to his right knee is more severe than first believed, including a completely torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Stevens, 51, made his comments on HRTV, the horse-racing network where on July 10 he first announced that he would stop riding immediately and undergo knee surgery.
DEL MAR, Calif. - Santa Anita may add two days of racing to its autumn meeting, and Los Alamitos may move the date of the richest race of its county fair meeting in September, after discussions at Friday’s California Horse Racing Board meeting.
The racing board approved licenses for three meetings – at Los Alamitos from Sept. 5-21, the San Joaquin County Fair at Stockton form Sept. 19-28, and at Santa Anita from Sept. 26 to Nov. 2.
Commissioner Madeline Auerbach asked Santa Anita officials to consider adding Thursday, Sept. 25 and Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Delta Downs in Vinton, La., has restructured the purses of three of the eight stakes that will make up its annual Jackpot Day program Nov. 22 in the biggest changes to its 32-race stakes schedule worth $4.6 million. The card will again be led by the Grade 3, $1 million Delta Downs Jackpot for 2-year-olds at a1 1/16 miles , the richest race during the 88-date meet that opens Oct. 15.
